London Life

Fully charged?

Electric cars don’t only protect the environment, according to the government’s ‘Go Ultra Low’ campaign, they’re also “practical, cheap and fun to drive”. But is London ready for the electric revolution?

Electric cars, invented at the turn of the last century, are certainly enjoying a renaissance. Their sales growth is dramatically outperforming that of petrol and diesel models. Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders figures show that while only around 500 electric cars hit UK roads in the first half of 2014, the figure now totals over 3,400 per month over the past year.

By the close of 2016 over 35,000 plug-in cars had been registered during the year, the highest number ever, and in the first seven months of 2017 nearly 26,000 were registered, ahead of the same period last year by nearly 20 per cent. These latest figures mean that plug-in electric cars now comprise 2.2 per cent of overall UK car sales – more or less in line with government targets.

With Congestion Charge discounts and other parking benefits, EVs have proved particularly popular in London, one of the first European cities to embrace plug-in cars, with ambitious plans for a comprehensive charging point network, revealed in 2011. Around 10,213 are now registered in the capital, out of 105,763 countrywide.

Unfortunately, Transport for London’s plans were so early they quickly dated, allowing the capital to fall behind other areas of the UK. While London enthusiastically installed ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ on-street public chargers (up to 7kW), only now are the latest ‘rapid’ charging points (rated at 50kWs or more and required by the latest electric cars) being rolled out across London.

‘Source London’ aims to have 6,000 charge points over the next couple of years, and £13m worth of Go Ultra Low City government funding is financing 2,000 new charge points for residents and car clubs by 2020. TfL will install 150 rapid charge points by the end of 2018 and at least 300 by 2020. It aims to have 75 installed by the end of 2017. The expansion can be followed in the Zap Map (zap-map.com).

“Everyone knows London had plenty of vehicles but not enough rapid charging and TfL knew it had to up its game,” says Dr Ben Lane, Zap-Map.com co-founder. “The UK has been ahead all the way compared to the rest of Europe, and fortunately, TfL has grasped the nettle.”

It’s just as well. Most manufacturers now offer fun, reliable, fast and efficient electric cars. The best-selling (29,500 UK sales) is Mitsubishi’s plug-in hybrid Outlander PHEV. Second is Nissan’s electric Leaf (17,250), followed by the Mercedes Benz C350e, with BMW’s i3, seen below right, (so handy for negotiating the capital’s streets that it’s being used by the Fire Service) coming fourth. The remaining six top sellers are Tesla’s luxurious, 290-mile-range Model S, Renault’s ZOE, Volkswagen’s Golf GTE, Volvo’s XC90 T8 Twin Engine and Nissan’s e-NV200 van.

Sales are driven not just by motorists seeking a conscience as clean as their emissions, but also cheaper running costs and discounted or zero vehicle tax. Some of London’s 33 local authorities offer electric motorists concessionary parking but, confusingly for drivers, neither GUL, the government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles nor London Councils can provide data on this, possibly explaining why electric car sales volumes aren’t higher than they are already.

There is much room for improvement. While private firms have on-site charging points, most Londoners live in outlying terraces or apartments - the very locations most bereft of chargers, forcing drivers to compete for the capital’s public, on-street points. And why no online map informing us where electric pioneers might find those “free” parking spaces?

It’s all given rise to a new phrase: “charging rage”. One main reason – says Philip Gomm, of the RAC Foundation, is ‘ICE-ing’ – drivers of internal combustion engined cars parking at electric charging points.

“But competition is hotting up between electric motorists too,” says Gomm. “I’ve seen them get very cross indeed when someone else hogs a space for a full charge and their own car is about to run flat. There have even been flare-ups in quiet St James’s Square.”

Going Green

Harrods' Pope Waverley

A new Halfords survey shows that nearly one in ten motorists are still ‘uncomfortable’ about travelling in a battery-powered vehicle. As we circle Trevor Square, Knightsbridge, in Harrods’ own, rather grand electric car, I empathise.

The acceleration is phenomenal... until we hit the top speed of 20mph and driver Len Brown fights to steer the car with a boat-style tiller. “Just as well it’s no faster,” admits the store’s Historic Electric Vehicles Curator, adding that the car’s stopping ability relies on two crude drum brakes – on the rear wheels only.

It’s not bad for a car built in 1901 and, like its modern day counterparts, the Pope Waverley can be charged overnight for just £3-£4 for a 100-mile range, underlining how little batteries have improved in a century, while providing startling contrast with a bill of £15 to go the same distance by petrol.

At the turn of the century, electric cars were cutting edge technology but they were pushed aside by petrol engines offering greater range and ease of refuelling, all the better for tackling Britain’s fast-growing road network.

The Pope Waverley isn’t their only electric vehicle. It keeps a handful of the store’s former, period electric vans for publicity purposes and recently bought a brand new Nissan e-NV200 for deliveries too. Other organisations going electric include Uber and other taxi firms, while LEVC have just launched their new TX-CITY plug-in black cab, which will appear on London streets later this year. Home delivery giant Ocado is trialling electric vans too.